Friend Request
by holidaysfromreality
Summary: "Do you know how many friends I had on Facebook before I joined glee? Two. My parents." Tina Cohen-Chang started a lot of new things her sophomore year.


**Friend Request **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Glee or Facebook. But I do enjoy both of them. **

Tina Cohen-Chang didn't know why she signed up in the first place. Peer pressure, maybe?

She started hearing about it during the first few days back at school. While she was convinced that it was just the fumes from those whiteboard markers _finally _seeping into her brain, it seemed like she was hearing about Facebook _everywhere. _She was sitting in English class on the third day of school the first time she heard about it. Two girls were sitting behind her, deep in conversation. The first one said, "Did you hear about Quinn Fabray and Finn Hudson?"

To which the second one replied, "Yeah, I saw it on Facebook. They're pretty cute together."

"They have to be, right? Their names _rhyme._"

Tina had stopped listening at that point and ultimately brushed the notion off until a few days later, when she was sitting at her family's computer, and the thought popped into her head. Of course, she didn't sign up. The whole idea of a social networking website was for people who were actually, you know, _social. _Which was something Tina did not consider herself to be.

But over the next few weeks, the idea kept coming back to her. Which lead her to where she was now, once again sitting on the Facebook sign-up page. She was contemplating, again. _What the appeal? _she asked herself, tapping her fingers against the keyboard, fully prepared to type in the web-address of her favorite blog and forget about this Facebook nonsense.

Something stopped her, though—and before she knew it, she was typing in her information into the little boxes, and moving her mouse to the "sign up" button. She hovered there for a second, like she always did when she got to this step, and finally just clicked it. _There. It was done. _

Tina wasn't exactly sure what to do next. She opened a new tab to go to her e-mail, where she confirmed her account, and then went to the blank canvas that was her Facebook profile. It didn't leave much room for creativity, she would admit. It didn't allow her to have a colorful background like a blog or even a MySpace page. There was nothing she could do to separate her page from anyone else's. Tina didn't really like to stand out too much, but the monotonous nature of the site almost made her turn around and never come back.

Of course, she didn't. She had been sucked into the vortex.

She knew enough about Facebook to know that it was customary to send people friend requests. She wasn't really sure who she wanted to send one to. Tina identified herself as a loner since starting at McKinley last year. She hadn't made much progress on the whole "making friends" front.

There was the girl in her math class that she occasionally talked to when they had to pair off to check homework, Mercedes. And there was the boy that she had been thrown into the dumpster almost weekly since they had both been decidedly labeled as losers. His name was Kurt Hummel. Unfortunately, she couldn't really call either of them _friends_.

Her cursor hovered over the "add as friend" button on both of their profiles, but she just couldn't bring herself to take the leap. She couldn't stand the possible rejection.

Tina spent the entire afternoon working on her profile. Uploading pictures of herself and her family and other things that she'd taken. Black and white pictures of trees and graffiti that she had taken with the good camera her parents had gotten her for her birthday. She set her profile picture—her favorite one of herself. She had a little smirk on her face in the photograph, her eyes cast upward. She was wearing her favorite red beanie, black hoodie over top combo.

She edited all of her personal information—her birthday and her school and her biography. Then she spent way too much time filling in the boxes with all of her favorite bands and movies and books. She updated her status for the first time: _Tina Cohen-Chang is trying Facebook out for size. _

Eventually, Tina dragged her parents into the office and set them up with accounts, so she would have someone to send a friend request to without the possibility of rejection.

That night, she laid in bed and thought about the way she had spent her afternoon. And she finally came to the conclusion that she didn't know what all the fuss was about. Facebook wasn't _that _special.

Two weeks later, she joined Glee Club. She didn't even _think _about Facebook for an entire month, let alone check her profile. She was too busy doing vocal runs with Mercedes and trying on costumes with Kurt when Mr. Schue would give them the key to the costume closet. She was having too much having movie nights with Artie.

_Artie. _

She had noticed him before she joined Glee club, of course. It was a little bit hard not to. He was the boy in the wheelchair.

Whether he wanted to or not, he attached attention to himself. She had never spoken to him, despite the fact that they shared two classes together. She wasn't sure what compelled her to talk to him that day.

Mr. Schue had mentioned during his first period Spanish class that he was taking over glee club and encouraged anyone who was interested to sign up. She liked Mr. Schue and she liked to sing, so she figured that it was worth a shot. She would never get in, she reasoned. Her stutter was too distracting. As long as it wasn't Mr. Ryerson, she would give it a shot.

And Artie just happened to be there when she went to sign up.

He was staring at the sign up sheet, struggling to reach the pen that was attached to the activities board. She walked up next to him and stammered out, "D-d-do you n-n-need s-s-some h-h-help?"

She didn't want to make it seem like she was pitying him because he couldn't reach. She knew that story, of having people feel bad for her. People often thought she couldn't do things for herself because of her stutter. When she tripped over her words, sometimes people would lay a hand on her shoulder and say things like: _do you want me to tell them for you, sweetie? _Like they knew what she was going to say.

His eyes looked to his lap for a moment as he adjusted his glasses and nodded, "Yes, thank you." He stopped trying to reach the pen and settled back into his chair, "My name is Artie. Artie Abrams."

She concentrated on writing the letters. When she finished, she leaned her head back a bit to admire her work. _Arty Abrams, _she thought to herself as she began to jot down her own name, _What an interesting spelling of that name. _

He looked as though he was going to say something when she picked up her messenger back and began to walk away, toward the doors so she could take the bus home. But then, behind her, she heard him say, "Wait up!" She stopped, waiting for him to catch up. He said, "I didn't even get your name."

She was sure that he had seen her name on the sign up sheet, but she humored him. "T-T-Tina," she stuttered out, closing her eyes for a moment as she prepared to say her last name, "C-C-Cohen-Chang."

He smiled, "Nice to meet you, Tina Cohen-Chang."

From that moment on, she was no longer just Tina. In terms of the glee club, she was part of an ensemble. She had eleven other people to hang out with, to be her friend. Because they were all losers together. She had someone to clean her off when she got slushied now.

And with Artie, she was part of a two-some. When she heard her name now, it was always paired with his. Tina _and _Artie. Goth Girl _and _Wheelchair Kid. Stutterfly _and _Wheels. They had become best friends, of sorts. Tina was the only one allowed to touch Artie's chair and push him when his arms got tired. She rarely stuttered when she was with him. Their friendship was magical to her, in a way.

In December, only a week after they'd rocked Sectionals, she was sitting alone in her family's office. Her parents were at work and her friends were preparing for the holidays with their families.

Tina was half-Jewish and in order to be fair to both halves of her heritage, her parents made an agreement that they would switch off on the holidays they celebrated every year. One year they would celebrate Hanukah with her father's family and then Christmas with her mother's side the next year.

This year had been a Hanukah year. It had been early in December this year and therefore was long over.

She didn't have anything to do until Monday, when she was going to the Abrams for a Christmas party that Artie had invited her, Mercedes, and Kurt to. And the glee club was getting together the day before Christmas Eve to have their own holiday celebration. And most likely, she and Artie would be spending New Year's Eve together when their parents went out to whatever function they'd be going to.

Tina knew both sets of parents were happy that their children had friends.

But, until all of that happened, she was bored. So, Tina did what any bored teenager did. She went on Facebook.

Since she only had two friends—two friends that she saw every single day—it wasn't as though she had really missed anything. Her mother's last post was two weeks ago, when she informed the world that she was making pot roast. Her father talked about golf quite a bit.

Tina was surprised to see a little red one in the top left hand corner. _One friend request. _She was shocked. Who would want to be friends with her? She dragged her cursor over to find out.

_Artie Abrams. _

She smiled as she hit "confirm."


End file.
